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Outside firm briefs Tomball council on delinquent-tax and court-fine collections; city to expand text outreach
Summary
Purdue, Brandon, Felder & Mott reviewed the city's delinquent-property tax and municipal court collections processes, reporting ongoing collections work and plans to expand texting to increase contact rates for unpaid fines and fees.
City contractors Purdue, Brandon, Felder & Mott briefed the Tomball City Council on Feb. 3 about the firm’s work collecting delinquent property taxes and municipal court fines and fees, and described new outreach tools the firm says will increase contact and collections.
The firm’s representative, Mike Darlow, said the Harris County tax office typically collects roughly 97.6% of the city’s levy and the law firm focuses on the remaining roughly 2–3% that becomes delinquent and must be pursued. At the time of the presentation the firm reported a base of about $242,000 in delinquent tax accounts, but said later updates reduced the current outstanding amount; the firm noted roughly $53,000 of that figure related to tax deferrals for eligible homeowners.
On municipal-court collections, the firm told council it has received roughly $2.4 million in unpaid fines and fees over time on the city’s behalf. Darlow said the firm has collected about $1.2 million in cash and recorded roughly $1.7 million in non-cash resolutions (dismissals, community-service or other case dispositions) in the historical record. He described the firm’s standard steps—mailings, address research, phone calls, and lawsuits when necessary—and said a key challenge is that address and license records are often out of date.
"The postal service likes us, because we spend a lot of money mailing a lot of letters out," Darlow told the council, summarizing regular outreach. He said the firm will expand text-message outreach in 2025 after a late-2024 pilot showed substantially higher contact rates through texting compared with letters.
Darlow also described periodic "case resolution" campaigns—formerly called warrant roundups—designed to get people into court to resolve outstanding tickets. City court staff (court clerk Maria Morris was named) coordinate with the firm on daily case handling and with the court for events intended to increase voluntary compliance.
Ending: The briefing was informational. Darlow said the firm is paid only from collection penalties established by law and that the city incurs no direct fee if accounts are not collected. Councilmembers asked clarifying questions about liens, liens on property and the mechanics of the case-resolution outreach; the presentation concluded with staff taking no formal action.
